ABSTRACT
Most of this chapter is about the national police reform programme in Scotland. That saw the merger of eight police forces and two other policing organizations to become the Police Service of Scotland. Merging those separate organizations into one entity was the largest public sector reform programme in Scotland (and arguably in the United Kingdom). Although extremely complex, this programme had to be delivered before 1 April 2013 because legislation introduced by the Scottish government meant that the pre-existing organizations would no longer hold the powers necessary for policing after that date.
